So, it's been a while since I've posted a marathon training log update. The restriction and discomfort in my left ankle that started developing a month or so ago was getting severe enough that curtailing training seemed like the only sensible thing to do.

We tried to go for a training run around Lake Merritt on Friday, October 30, but halfway through my ankle hurt badly enough that I called the run off. I was already feeling frustrated and upset about not being able to run, and then right after calling off the run we saw a sign on a lamppost: "LOST CAT! Please check your garage or storage shed — he may be trapped and starving to death!"

"Dammit," I managed to get out to Pirate, "I did not need to see a sign like that right now!" at which point I burst into tears.

So I went to the SF Egoscue clinic the following Monday and have been doing my new menu of E-cises diligently since then. My ankle has been getting markedly better (it was noticeably better the morning after the appointment and has only continued to improve since then), and I've been looking at the training schedule and telling myself "Yeah, we can get back on schedule and do the marathon in March. Of course we can. Man I hope I don't get injured again. It'll be fine."

And then spiritualmonkey managed to jack himself up in a bike crash last week (which he has promised to write up) and has been groaning in pain when he moves ever since Thursday.

Saturday morning he looked at me and said, "Hey, hon, what would you think about stepping down to the half marathon instead?"

Wait, what? Is this the same to deal with life, strap on your helmet, put your chin down, and run FULL SPEED AHEAD guy I've been with for the past 14 years? Advocating moderation? Advocating "let's know our prudent limits and stay within them"?

But he pointed out that we're not doing this to run a marathon in March 2010, we're doing this so we can be running until we're 100. He also reminded me of how much emphasis Pavel puts on the idea of "Don't train to failure — train to success!" Pavel says you should always end a workout with something left in the tank and feeling like you could have kept going. By that standard, if we cross the half-marathon finish line saying "damn, I could do another one of these right now, no problem!" it should be counted as a success, I guess.

So that's what we're going to do: take advantage of the Oakland Marathon's generous policy that allows registrants to downgrade to a shorter race. We're going to run the half marathon in March, instead of the marathon. And, with luck, we are going to keep ourselves free of pressure and stress in the process.

Rather than post training logs on my LJ, I'm using MapMyRun instead. If you have a MapMyRun userid and are interested, let me know and I'll add you to my friends list so you can see my log.